


In Memoriam

by Linky



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 11:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4098556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linky/pseuds/Linky





	In Memoriam

They call her ruthless. Destructive. They deemed her unstable, limitless, and cold. A renegade. They call her ‘get it done’. And oh how did she get things done. But they never saw the grief of what she had to be and how made her feet drag. How soft the heart was underneath the armour. There was so much more to Commander Shepard than the name; the legend. Behind the stories, there was still the girl who’d been left cowering, alone, in the streets. The girl who fought tooth and nail to deserve some humanity. The scars on her face, from where death had nearly found its purchase, are more famous than her sacrifice. Small children draw crayon replicas, shouting words of violence as they pretend to kill one another. And what is left of who she truly was? A name on a plaque.

In the gathered crowd there is silence. Heads are bent, only a handful understanding why. The rest, well, there was always someone else to be ‘get it done’. Someone would have saved them, that was the natural order of things. Someone is speaking words, commemorating her sacrifice, as though they could possibly comprehend it. She gave so much more than her life, and she is thanked only for her destruction. She killed Saren. She killed the collectors. She killed the Reapers. Is that all they can see? Death will taint her memory. She will become Commander Shepard – Slayer of Reapers.

Somewhere, an Asari leaves the crowd, angry and determined. A relic following hurriedly behind her, amazed at how these primitives had become family. A Turian has a fist gripping at the clothing on his chest, as though his heart is trying to escape. It’s raining, he’ll tell them if they ask why his eyes are wet. It won’t stop raining. Face free and clear – healthy – a Quarian leads an entire fleet back to their ship, feet falling hard in the pointless silence. There are Krogan too, two of them. Their grief is open and terrifying.

They will leave, remembering a woman who healed more than she hurt. A woman who loved, and laughed. She was more to them than a killer. More, even, than a friend. She was Commander Shepard – A Saviour.

But she is ashes, now, drifting. Carried on winds calmer than she had ever known.


End file.
